VG Cats: How Do You Know?
by yayleo
Summary: They say that love hurts... They're right. A story of friendship, angst, and falling in love.
1. Chapter 1

How Do You Know?

Beginnings Arc

Chapter 1: A Friend in Need

===September===

Leo looked over the ledge with wide eyes, fear the only emotion present in them.

_Why the hell did I decide to do this?_ He thought to himself. The drop had looked so much shorter earlier, but now that he was here, it looked like it was a thousand feet in the air.

_Oh man, I CAN'T do this,_ As he turned to head down, he spotted his friends, all of them looking at him with supporting smiles.

"You can do it Leo!" Ronny shouted.

"Leo, Leo, Leo!" Everyone started cheering his name and swinging their fists in the air. It filled Leo with confidence, and he turned back to the ledge, determination on his face.

_Fuck it._

He tensed his legs, crouched low to the ground, and flexed his arms out to the sides.

And then he jumped.

"YEEEHAAAWWW!"

Leo screamed out as he left the small platform, positioning his body in a cannonball-like way, but soon was flailing around like an idiot in the air.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

All he could do was scream as he plummeted to the water below him. It looked like he was going to slam into the blue liquid and be finished, but all of a sudden, Leo felt himself get extremely heavy, then shoot right back into the air. He had forgotten that he was attached to a bungee cord as he fell through the air, and now he was soaring in artificial flight.

His stomach lurched at the sudden whiplash of the bungee chord, and Leo felt as if he were going to throw up. Still screaming, Leo looked over and cursed his friends;

"I'm gonna kill you guys!"

His friends burst into laughter over his terror, watching him flail around in the air in complete fear. The went on for around a minute. Leo was eventually let down by the bungee jump operator, who was laughing just as hard as his friends were.

"Man-o-man, I've never heard someone scream that loud in all my life, boy!" The man slapped his knee and howled with laughter.

"Then make it less high next time!" Leo yelled at the man. This only drew another laugh from the operator and from Leo himself, feeling quite giddy now that he was on the ground. He had to admit he had fun. More than fun, actually, he had the time of his life, soaring through the air, feeling as though he were going to die any second, then being flung back towards the sky whenever he got close enough to the ground for the bungee cord to snap back.

_But I sure as hell won't be doing it again!_ He thought to himself, smirking.

His friends came around from behind a corner, and as Leo saw them, he pointed an accusing finger at them;

"Your all jerks!"

They burst into laughter again; only this time Leo joined them. He went up to Ronny and couldn't help letting a huge smile come across his face.

"It's your turn next time man, and I'm gettin' that shit on camera!"

Ronny pulled him into a noggie, chuckling a bit to himself. "There won't be a next time! HA!"

"Gah, lemme go!" Leo tried in vain to avoid the noggie, but he was unsuccessful.

After a bit more fooling around, jokes concerning Leo's recent jump, and a bit of teasing, everyone calmed down and wondered out loud what they wanted to do next.

"Let's go on a rollercoaster!" Ashley exclaimed, jumping up and down in the spot in an enthusiastic matter.

"Naw, let's get something to eat, I'm starving!" Shawn said, rubbing his stomach in a goofy way, which drew a sheepish laugh from Ashley and an eye roll from Ronny.

"Well how 'bout we do this, we-" Leo started, but suddenly stopped, noticing that one person was missing from their party. A certain pink cat.

"Wait, where's Aeris?" Leo asked, not seeing her among his friends with a look of confusion on his face. The others noticed to, for now they were looking around for her. They began to call out her name when Ashley spoke up.

"Oh yeah, she had a date tonight and left fifteen minutes ago." She had forgotten to tell the rest of the group the news of Aeris' departure when she left, which earned her a raised eyebrow and funny smirk from Shawn. "What? People forget." Ashley defended herself. Shawn kept looking at Ashley with his face, which earned him a punch in the shoulder. He rubbed his shoulder and let a wide, toothy smile come across his face. Leo's ears perked up at the mention that Aeris had a date tonight.

"A date? With who?"

Ashley turned back to face Leo. "I think she said it was that Spencer guy that transferred here last year right before summer break. Do you have him in any of you're classes?"

Leo shook his head no.

"Well, I have him in math, and he is so hot." Ashley put a great amount of emphasis on the word hot, and quickly turned to see Shawn give an annoyed "hmph", then quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek, giggling.

Leo continued walking towards the amusement park, a slight grin forming in the corner of his mouth.

"Hmm, cool. What's he like?" He asked, curios to learn more about this new Spencer guy.

"Well, I don't talk to him to much. He's usually hangs around these two other guys in class, but he isn't a loud mouth LIKE SOME PEOPLE," Ashley somewhat yelled the last part of her sentence in Ronny's direction, who then stopped walking and turned to face her, a finger raised and grin formed in the corner of his mouth.

"Fuck you Ash, that teacher's a dick and you know it."

Ashley stuck her tongue out a Ronny, who proceeded to do the same, drawing a laugh from both cats.

"You just don't like him cause he called you a punk ass."

"Yeah, well...Screw you."

"Nyeh"

"Nyeh!"

While Ronny and Ashley went back and forth with each other, Leo felt his phone begin to vibrate. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw Aeris' number present on the caller ID. Slightly confused, but wanting to get on Aeris' nerves a bit, Leo quickly flipped open the phone and pressed it up against his ear.

"So," Leo spoke in a sly tone into the phone. "How's the date going?" He finished by letting a mischievous smile come across his face.

No answer came from the other end of the line. All Leo could hear was faint sniffling.

The sound startled Leo somewhat, and his smile drooped down a bit. "Aeris? Is that you?" His voice took on a concerned tone, completely dropping any kind of joking sound off with it.

"Leo?" Aeris' voice came out quiet shaky, as if she had been crying. She sniffed her nose once before continuing "Leo, please come and get me."

Leo's ears dropped down close to his head. It sounded as if Aeris had been crying, something she rarely did, even in front of her friends and family, much less Leo himself.

"Aeris? What's wrong?" Leo really began to worry now. He didn't like it when Aeris cried. In fact, he hated it. He heard her whimper slightly on the other end and felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, the smile he had on earlier completely falling off his face. "Aeris, are you okay? Are you with Spencer?"

"No I'm not with Spencer!" Aeris yelled at Leo from the phone, anger finding it's way to her voice. Leo winced as he held the phone farther away from his ear. That was the Aeris he'd always known.

"Where is he?" Leo asked, oblivious to what had happened to Aeris.

He heard her sigh in annoyance on the other end, probably irritated by his question. Leo tried to suppress a grin from breaking out on his face. As much as he had wanted to rattle Aeris' cage earlier, he didn't really want her to be mad at him right now.

"I don't know where he is." Aeris spoke rather quickly, somewhat betraying to Leo just how sad she was, although the angry tone in her voice was still faintly present. "All I know is that I've been standing here for twenty minutes waiting for him, and he hasn't even called me."

A strong silence found it's way into the conversation between Leo and Aeris. It remained in it's place for a time before Aeris spoke again.

"He stood me up Leo," She choked a bit as she finished, panting slightly, before Leo could hear the unmistakable sound of crying from the other end of the line, confirming his earlier suspicions. He remained silent, unsure of what to say.

More silence hung in the air, only breaking when Leo gathered enough courage to speak again.

"Are...are you okay?"

Of course she's not okay, you dope! Leo immediately regretted his words, hoping they might offer some sort of comfort to his pink friend, but after saying them, he was certain they would do just the opposite.

To his great surprise, he was wrong.

Leo heard Aeris take in a deep breath, most likely to calm herself down a bit, then she spoke, only now her voice had a bit more uplifting sound to it.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just…really want to hit something right now." Aeris sighed as she finished her sentence, making Leo unintentionally breathe out in relief as well. He had dodged a bullet with that one.

He finally let the grin he had been trying to hide earlier spread unchecked across his face. Aeris was undoubtedly referring to himself in her sentence. He didn't really care though. Right now all he really had on his mind was making Aeris feel better.

"There ya go. Some abuse always does the trick." Leo heard Aeris giggle quietly on the other end, sending a warm sensation down his body. He would probably never say it to her face, but he loved it when she laughed, even if it was at his own expense. He would do anything to make her laugh.

"So will you come get me?"

_As if I wouldn't._ Leo thought to himself. "Yeah, where are you?"

After Aeris finished filling Leo in on her current whereabouts, he quickly said good-bye to her, hung his phone up, stuck his phone back in his pocket, then turned to face his friends once again, being greeted by the sight of them now sitting down at a nearby bench, bored and slightly irritated expressions on their faces. Leo walked over, slightly embarrassed, and rubbed the back of his head just for the sake of the moment.

"Heh, sorry guys. Didn't mean to be on the phone for so long," Leo smiled awkwardly, slightly ashamed that he had mistakenly forgotten about his other friends while talking to Aeris.

Shawn gave a sideways glance at Leo along with a sarcastic smile. "Mhm, what was that about anyways?"

Leo's ears pressed down completely against his head. Even though nothing was happening right now, there had been a carefree, uplifting feel in the air the whole night between the friends. As much as Leo didn't want to spoil it for anyone, he didn't want to lie.

He breathed deep, let the air in his lungs out slowly, then gave each of his friends one of his more serious looks, one which he only used when the situation asked for it.

"Aeris phoned me," Leo spoke in a flat tone and let a bit of silence hang in the air before continuing. "Spencer didn't show up for the date. She got stood up."

When Leo saw his friends earlier, they had looked tired, bored, and anxious. Now they had looks of shock, their mouths hanging open slightly, and their eyes wide. Leo simply looked down at the ground and muttered a quiet "yeah," in response.

One would think that in a situation such as this that an awkward silence would now descend upon the group of friends, but this assumption would be incorrect. Immediately after Leo had finished speaking, Ronny stood up from the bench and walked over to Leo, looking pretty pissed.

"We're doing something about this, right?" Ronny's dark blue eyes stared down at Leo with an intensity that would usually make him break down in uncontrollable laughter, seeing Ronny looks so serious, but right now, he felt no urge to do so, himself feeling a small bit of anger inside as well.

"Oh yeah." The look in Leo's eyes matched, maybe even rivaled his yellow friend's.

Ronny nodded his head in approval. "Good." He shifted his eyes to the side a bit, then looked back at Leo. "You going to get her?"

Leo nodded his head yes.

Ronny pursed his lips a bit, then brought his arm up and patted Leo on the back. "Alright, cool. We can hang here till you get back." He turned back towards Shawn and Ashley. "Right guys?" He asked with gusto.

Shawn nodded and gave a thumb's up. Ashley, who had turned her gaze towards the ground, looked over at Ronny and smiled weakly. "Yeah, we'll be fine."

"Kay, cool." Leo waved a hand to his friends as he turned to walk away to his car.

"Oh, and Leo," Leo turned his head back and saw Ashley looking over at him, almost a little to seriously.

"Hm?"

"Give that jerk a piece of my mind in case you see him." Ashley swung her clenched fist back and forth in the air in Leo's direction, gaining a small chuckle from the gray cat in doing so.

"Aeris is rubbin' off on ya, Ash." Leo shook his head at her before turning back and walking away. He said that he would be back soon to get all of them soon, and they told him not to hurry. Leo continued walking towards the closest door outside, and just before he was out of earshot of his friends, he heard Shawn remark that just a few minutes ago Ashley had stated that the jerk (Spencer) in question was quiet attractive. Her response was telling Shawn to shut the hell up and smacking him upside the head. Shawn just laughed his girlfriend's anger away, as he usually did. It was typical Shawn and Ashley.

Leo quickly exited the mall and made his way over to his old blue Jeep. He pulled out his keys and unlocked the vehicle. Even though his friends gave him a hard time for driving something so inconvenient as a Jeep around Toronto, Leo loved the thing. He had bought it with his own money, got all the accessories on his own, paid for their installation, and he even paid for the gas. The only thing that hadn't come out of Leo's pocket in terms of vehicle payment was the insurance. His parents took care of that, and he had absolutely no problem with that whatsoever.

As Leo slammed the door of the Jeep shut behind him, started the engine, and began driving away, the pleasant guitar rift of Thousand Foot Krutch's "Move" greeted him. The sound lifted his spirits greatly, something he really needed. Even though he knew Aeris wouldn't want to hear it, Leo felt really bad for her. He didn't pity her by any means, he just felt that sometimes the world could be a little extra hard on her sometimes…

Leo quickly tried to shake the unpleasant thought from his mind. He knew Aeris was a strong girl, in more ways than one, and he shouldn't worry about her. Besides, she would probably want to see him in a good mood when he picked her up instead of looking just as sad as she was. That, or smack him around a bit.

As Leo exited the mall's parking lot, the song entered its chorus, making him smile and begin to bob his head along to the music.

**Move**

**And show me what you can do**

**When you step into the circle**

**And shake like we do and**

**Move**

**When you just can't take it**

**And move**

**If you just feel like breakin'**

The song was catchy, that was obvious enough.

Leo continued to drive towards his destination, keeping in mind that he still had to cook up a plan to get revenge on Spencer with Ronny and Shawn in time for tomorrow. It had to be humiliating, for sure, but it had to have something else too….

He wasn't as sadistic with his pranks like Shawn was, so he decided he would just discuss it with him and Ronny later that night.

After a few minutes of driving and the song ending Leo located the movie theater Aeris had told him she was at, quickly found a parking spot, stepped out of the car, and began searching around for her. According to the phone call, she would be near the main entrance of the theater.

"She shouldn't be to hard to find," Leo said to himself as began to walk towards the theater.

"Aeris? Aaaaeeerissss," Leo called out her name, cupping his hands around his mouth in an effort to make his words travel farther. "Aeris! The hell are you?" Leo yelled for his pink friend with all his might, wanting desperately to find her.

This continued for a good five minutes, Leo calling out Aeris' name and walking around the theater in an attempt to locate her. After several loops around the theater, a sharp whistle came from behind Leo. At first he didn't pay any attention to it, but spun around to locate the source of the sound when it came again with his name being shouted following close behind.

"Leo!"

The voice sounded feminine, and quite familiar. Also a little irritated.

Leo perked his ears up and squinted his eyes in an attempt to locate the source of the voice. He didn't need to search long before his eyes found the girl he had been searching for.

Aeris was leaning up against a streetlight. When he saw her, she waved to Leo and gave a small, sad smile, making a small pain form in Leo's stomach.

_Poor Aeris._ Leo thought to himself as he slowly began to jog towards her.

In a short amount of time Leo covered the distance between him and Aeris. Once he made his way next to her, he gave her a caring but still concerned look.

Neither of them said anything to each other, Leo because he wasn't sure of what words to use to cheer his friend up, and Aeris simply because she just didn't feel like talking right now.

Aeris seemed to notice the awkward lack of words between her and Leo, because she let out a sigh and pushed him back slightly with an annoyed look on her face. Leo just stared back at her with his worried look, wishing he could think of something to say to make her feel better.

"Thanks for coming," Aeris finally spoke, her voice quiet and flat, trying not to let any sort of emotion find it's way into it. She turned away from Leo and hugged herself around her waist. The sight made Leo's gut feel like a pound of lead.

He took a step towards her and placed his right hand on her shoulder.

"Aeris," Leo's voice sounded just as sad as Aeris' had earlier, maybe even more so. She turned back to face him then, and Leo saw small tears beginning to form on the corners of her eyes. He let out a sad sigh before taking another step in her direction and wrapped her up in a tight hug.

Aeris didn't resist against the motion. She just stood there with her eyes closed and her head pointed downward as Leo hugged her. She let out a few quiet sobs and sniffs of her nose as she and Leo just stood there. He couldn't tell if hugging Aeris had helped lift her spirits or just made the situation worse, but Leo felt he had to at least try something.

After a full minute of Leo holding Aeris against himself and Aeris finally letting herself cry, Leo pulled away from her slightly and looked her directly in the eyes.

"Aeris, are you okay? Really?"

Aeris swallowed a bit and breathed in heavily before answering Leo.

"I'm just pissed." Her voice came out a little quiet, but it didn't break or shake like it had on the phone. Leo saw this as a good sign, somewhat at least.

An idea struck Leo then. It wasn't the greatest one he ever had, not by a long shot, but then again, not many of them were, but if it would make Aeris feel better, then it was worth it.

Sighing, Leo took a step back from Aeris, then another, and finally a third step, until he was a good foot or so away from her. Aeris, noticing Leo backing away from her, gave him a very confused look.

"Leo, what are you doing?"

Leo began to spread his arms out to his sides, raising them higher and higher until they were level with his shoulders, then shuffled his feet a bit so that there was a small space between each of his legs. When he was finished moving around, Leo resembled an extremely thin version of a Super Mario star.

Leo gave a weak smile to Aeris, who was staring at him with a completely dumbfounded expression. Seeing her like that made him chuckle slightly.

"You said you were down, yeah?" Leo's voice contained unwillingness, but sounded happy, in some weird way. He didn't want this to happen, but he couldn't think of anything else, and this just seemed like the best thing he could do right now.

Aeris' confused expression remained on her face as she stared back at Leo. "Leo, seriously, what the fuck are you doing?"

All he did was smile back at her then tapped the center of chest with his hand.

"Come on Aeris, you're smart. Figure it out for yourself." He paused a bit after the sentence to allow Aeris some time to do what he had asked, but when she didn't answer him as soon as he expected she would, Leo decided he might as well save both of them some time and tell her himself.

"Vent." Was all he said. "Just vent n let it out."

_To Be Continued_


	2. Chapter 2

How Do You Know?

Beginnings Arc

Chapter 2: A Good Friend

Aeris continued to stare at Leo for a few seconds, trying to figure out what he meant when he told her to "vent", until it slowly came to her. The realization made Aeris' eyes open wide with surprise and her mouth dropped down a bit.

"No." She shook her head to emphasize the word. "No, I'm not gonna do that Leo."

Leo got a smug look on his face. It seemed she had finally figured it out.

"Come on, you'll feel better."

"Hitting you will NOT make me feel any better."

"You've done it before. Why not now?"

"This is different." She crossed her arms then, as if to assert her defiance to the idea.

Leo face-palmed and grunted in frustration. He was trying to help her, and she was saying no. Not only that, but he offering to let her beat him up, something she had done tons of times in the past. But now she was acting as if it were some ungodly crime.

…Why couldn't woman just be simple?

There was only one way to get her to open up and let her emotions out, and Leo knew just how to do it.

He had to call her out.

"Don't be such a baby. Sheesh." Leo's voice was sly and condescending. It needed to be if his plan was going to work. He just hopped he wouldn't go too far and make Aeris want to kill him.

Aeris turned her head away from Leo and gave a blank stare to no one in general.

"I'm not hurting you Leo."

Her words grinded on him. She was making things harder than they needed to be by being so damn stubborn. Leo decided he had to crank it up a notch. He let his arms fall to his sides and he slouched his back slightly to give him a slightly gangly appearance. His head tilted fully to the left and he brought upon his face the stupidest smile he could muster. Aeris didn't seem to notice any of it.

"Come on Aeris, I'm makin it easy!" Leo knew that talking to Aeris in this way would surely send her over the edge soon, he just had to be careful as to how far he pushed her. "I won't tell anyone. Not my parents, not Tommy, nobody. Swear on it."

Aeris continued to stare off into the distance without a word, looking as though she hadn't heard anything of what Leo said. It was time for him to pull out the big guns.

Straightening out his back, Leo walked back over to Aeris. He stepped directly in front of her and stuck his paws in his pockets and shook his head at her, smiling. She responded in turn by giving him a dark look, compromised of her mouth forming a small line and her right eyebrow moving lower to her eye, both of which were glaring at Leo evilly. Normally he would tremble with fear by seeing Aeris look at him like that, but right now, all Leo could feel was a giddy excitement rise from within. His plan was working.

Taking a step towards Aeris, Leo threw his arm around her shoulders and leaned over on her on one leg, making both of them tilt slightly towards the ground. Leo heard Aeris grumble quietly, without a doubt irritated by his actions, and he see's a small vein on her temple begin to stick out. All he could do was smile.

"Y'know Aeris, when you think about it, letting loose a bit is kinda like Cheeze Whiz." Leo paused for a second and brought his mouth within close proximity of Aeris' ear, knowing that speaking into it at such a short distance would startle her, and in turn, fuel her rage. "You know you waaaaant it."

Aeris jumped sharply as Leo spoke into her ear and let out a small yelp. He hadn't spoken loudly, but he had made sure to make his voice sound as low as possible. In a strange way it had made it sound loud when it really wasn't, if that makes any sense. Aeris clenched her fists tightly after being scared by Leo and her arms became ridged. She's getting angry now.

Leo noticed all of this and couldn't help but continue to smile a smartass smile. He pushed forward with his teasing of Aeris, now having too much fun to remember that he had to watch himself.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I scare you?" Leo asked rhetorically, trying to sound as innocent as he could, even going so far that he pulled his smile down into an apologetic frown and stood up from leaning down on Aeris but still kept his arm around her. She growled slightly and grinded her teeth as she forcefully shook it off and started walking forward, not looking at Leo at all.

"Where's you're car?" She was definitely annoyed now. It resonated in her voice.

Leo shrugged his shoulders and whipped out a stupid sounding "I dunno" as he began to walk alongside Aeris. She let out an agitated sigh and turned to face her friend.

"Leo, you know damn well where you're car is, so just tell me so we can get out of here." Aeris was quickly losing patients as Leo was gaining ground.

Leo smirked wickedly in response. "Not until you hit me."

Aeris sighed again, although the sound she made couldn't really be called a sigh, more like a low pitch extended growl.

"I'm not hitting you for the LAST. TIME."

"Then I guess we aren't going anywhere." Leo finished by sticking his hands in his pockets and continued to walk beside Aeris.

She stopped walking suddenly and quickly grabbed Leo by the collar of the shirt. Even though he should have been expecting the aggressive motion, it didn't stop Leo from letting slip a sharp yelp when Aeris pulled his face within only a few centimeters of her own.

"Leo," She growled through clenched teeth and her words were fast. "Tell. Me. Where. The car. Is. NOW."

Leo stared back at Aeris wide-eyed. He could still feel the slight thrill of excitement that he had earlier, but it was quickly being replaced with the fear he should have felt earlier.

…At least the plan was working!

"N-not until you hit me!" Leo tried to make his voice sound as defiant as he could.

"LEO!"

"Come on Aeris, just do it! You've done it enough times that I don't give a shit anymore, so just do it!"

Aeris starred at him with disbelief.

"HIT ME YA CRAZY WOMAN!"

Leo was yelling the words of his sentence, but they contained no aggression. Instead, they were coated with a playful atmosphere that didn't fit the situation at all.

Aeris tightened her grip on Leo's shirt. He didn't care that he was probably going to get a bright shiner across his cheek for being such a smartass. He knew that it had to be done if Aeris was going to feel better. In a way, it kind of made Leo happy.

That happiness all but died when he saw just how far back Aeris pulled back her paw.

Oh fuck! She's gonna knock me out!

It seemed that in an ironic twist of fate, Leo's plan had worked out to well.

Aeris had pulled her paw back a good distance behind her head, and now the limb was hovering tight and solid with the back of it facing directly towards Leo. She was bearing her fangs and her eyes looked madder than they had been in a long time. Now Leo was definitely afraid.

Shit shit SHIT!

"Last chance!" Aeris yelled.

Leo's mouth seemed to be dead, because no words came from it in the short time Aeris gave him to answer.

Leo saw, in what looked like slow motion, the back of Aeris' hand speed towards his face. He knew it was going to hurt like a bitch, so Leo closed his eyes tight and prepared for the inevitable. He knew that it was only for about a fraction of a second as Aeris' hand sped towards the side of his face, but for Leo it felt like hours.

He waited for the burn to rip across his cheek, eyes still clenched shut, but it never came.

What the fuck? Leo slowly opened his eyes, slightly unsure if doing so was very wise, and felt his heart start to race.

Where was the pain? Where was the sound of his cheek and her paw smacking against each other? What was going on?

As Leo fully opened his eyes, he saw it.

Aeris' hand was only a few centimeters from his cheek.

WHAT THE FUCK! DID SHE FREZE OR SOMETHING! Leo wasn't completely sure that what he was seeing was real.

What he heard next only served to further his confusion.

It was the sound of feminine laughing.

Leo's eyes instantly shot wide open and he saw the most shocking thing ever. Aeris was looking down at him and laughing, her paw still just a short distance from his cheek. Leo stared at her with the most confused face he ever wore. He couldn't figure out what was so funny.

As he continued to stare at her with puzzlement, Leo saw Aeris' paw move away slightly, causing him to again prepare for a scorching pain to rip across his face. Instead, it simply tapped the side of his face softly, giving off a small "smack". Aeris laughed again, brought the paw to the opposite cheek, tapped it in the same manner, and then repeated the motion a third time on the original.

If Leo had been confused earlier, his current state of mind had no name. He had made Aeris mad. REALLY MAD. ON PURPOSE. And he wasn't feeling any sort of pain whatsoever. Instead, she was laughing as if he had told her a really good joke, not in the sarcastic tone that she usually used. Leo's unnamable emotion seemed to reflect on his face, because when Aeris opened her eyes to look at him, her laughing grew louder and more intense.

When her laughter died down a bit, Aeris looked back down at Leo, who was still staring at her blankly, and smiled affectionately at him before letting go of his shirt and letting him briefly fall towards the ground before Leo caught himself.

"Will you tell me where you're car is now?" Aeris' smile didn't leave her face as she spoke.

Leo didn't seem to hear her because he continued to stare back at her with both his eyebrows pulled down at an odd angle with his eyes focusing intently on her.

"Hello, earth to Leo. You there?" Aeris snapped her fingers in front of Leo's face a few times in an attempt to snap him out of his apparent trance.

Leo blinked a few times and shook his head quickly from side to side.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry." Leo voice sounded a little dazed, as if he hadn't been fully freed from his trance.

"It's okay." Aeris said reassuringly. "So where's you're car?"

Leo gave Aeris a sarcastic look. "Hmph. You didn't hit me, so I'm not telling." Though still confused beyond belief, Leo's voice was as sarcastic as the expression on his face.

"Well," Aeris began. "You didn't specify exactly how hard I had to hit you to get you to talk, so I guess you're wrong about that." Aeris paused for a moment and cracked a mischievous smile across her furred lips. "As usual."

Leo responded in turn with a heavily sarcastic laugh as he pointed out the direction of the Jeep. As he and Aeris began to walk to where it was parked, Leo tried his best to figure out why Aeris hadn't hurt him. He ran over his mental checklist of things that got under her skin twice before he concluded that he hadn't the slightest idea as to why he was perfectly fine. Wanting an answer to his question, Leo decided that he might as well ask Aeris since he couldn't come up with one on his own.

"Uh, Aeris?"

"Yeah Leo?"

"…Why? Why didn't you knock me senseless back there? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but it's…not really like you." Leo trailed off with his thoughts, now unsure of what to say.

"Leo, I didn't hurt you… because you didn't deserve it."

Aeris' words surprised Leo greatly. "What do you mean, 'I didn't deserve it'? I would have kicked my own ass back there!"

Aeris giggled quietly at the small joke Leo made. "You didn't deserve it because I know you were just trying to help me cool off a bit." A slight pause. "Right?"

Leo scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, yeah. I didn't like seeing you like that Aeris…"

"Exactly. Even though you were purposefully trying to piss me off, you were doing it for me. THAT'S why I didn't slap you harder Leo, because you were being a good friend." She stopped walking and brought her arms around Leo's torso, hugging him in a similar manner as he did her a few minutes ago. "Thank you."

Leo felt a small amount of heat enter his cheeks. Aeris usually thanked him for doing favors for her, but this was something different entirely. Still, it would be rude, plain and simple, if he didn't do something to show his own gratitude towards her.

"You're welcome," A genuinely thankful smile was on Leo's face as her returned the friendly embrace to Aeris, but after only a few seconds, the authenticity of the smile corrupted into a devilishly sly grin.

"Heh, y'know a smooch would be a nice follow up, eh?"

Leo swore he could feel the air get thicker as Aeris' smile quickly turned into an unamused frown. She quickly pushed him away from her and resumed walking towards the jeep, now at a much faster pace then before.

"Only you could kill a moment like that."

Leo grinned and ran to catch up with Aeris. "I don't know about that, I mean, Ronny's pretty good at that kinda thing."

At the mention of Ronny's name, Leo's face became instantly straight.

What time was it? He pulled out his phone and glanced at the clock on it.

It read 9:45.

He had left the mall at 9:15.

Ronny, Shawn and Ashley were all still waiting for him at the mall.

"Fuck!" Leo shouted. Aeris turned around, probably to scold him for swearing so loud in a public place, but she didn't get a word out before Leo ran forward, grabbed her by the arm, and full on sprinted to the jeep.

"Leo! What the hell?" Being grabbed so suddenly then being dragged forward definitely didn't make Aeris happy.

"Sorry, but I forgot that everyone was still at the mall!" Leo didn't stop running, he just kept moving as fast as he could.

Dammit, everyone's gonna be pissed! I shouldn't have taken so long. Where's the car? Where, where…there!

Leo spotted the brown jeep and quite nearly pulled Aeris off her feet when he dashed towards it. Coming up to the vehicle, Leo let go of Aeris, much to her relief, and more or less threw the door open as he hoped into the driver's seat. Aeris, not in such a rush as Leo, slowly regained her balance and, from Leo's point of view, took her sweet time walking over to the passenger side of the vehicle and hoped in alongside him, all while Leo was frantically telling her to hurry up.

"Holy shit, calm down Leo. I'm sure they don't care that much."

"Aeris, it's quarter to ten. My curfew's ten thirty, and you know how long it takes to drop everyone off."

Leo was right. It usually took a good twenty minutes for him to bring all of his friends home with average traffic. That wasn't counting the time it would take to drive to the mall and find everyone. Then he would have to drive himself and Aeris home, probably arriving somewhere in the vicinity of ten forty-five.

That was too late for Leo.

Aeris, realizing that he would probably wind up breaking his curfew, buckled her seat-belt, got a firm grip on the arms of the seat, took in a deep dramatic breath, and told Leo to step on it. He didn't seem to need telling twice, because in an instant, Leo told her to "hold on tight", and threw the jeep in reverse. Nearly face planting into the dashboard, Aeris quickly regretted her words as she held onto the arms of the chair in preparation for what would be one of the most chaotic drives of her life.

Around seven minutes later, Leo's jeep pulled into the mall's parking lot and quickly found a free space. As if to mimic his vehicle's speedy (and chaotic) movements a few moments earlier, Leo opened his door and rushed out, slamming it shut a fraction of a second later as he pulled out his cell phone. Aeris, on the other hand, simply hobbled out of the passenger door, her eyes wide and the fur on her tail spiking upwards in the air. She would undoubtedly be having nightmares relating to the events of the past ten minutes for days. As she leaned up against the door in an effort to slow her racing heart, Leo paced back and forth as he dialed Ronny's number with an anxious look on his face.

He stopped his pacing as he pressed the phone against his ear, tapping his foot at a rapid rate instead. The phone rang once, twice, a third time as Leo quickly lost what little patients he had to begin with.

"Come on Ron, pick uuuuup…"

Leo began to lose hope for his yellow friend when a click came from the other line.

"And just where have you been young man?"

Ronny hadn't been happy earlier, that much was obvious to Leo and the rest of his friends when he left. But it seemed that in the short time he had been gone, the anger Ronny felt over Aeris' situation seemed to have faded away, being replaced with his sarcastic sense of humor.

"RON! Thank god! Listen I'm sorry for taking so long. Aeris was a little-"

"And you should be." Ronny interrupted. "Have you any idea how worried we were? We were about to send a search party!"

Leo face-palmed. Why oh WHY did he call Ronny?

"Yeah yeah. Listen, I need you guys to come out and meet us at the jeep. We're gonna have to gun it home. I might miss my curfew."

"Hmm I'm not sure we can do you that little favor Leo. You had us terribly worried."

"Ron come on! Quit fuckin around!" Leo wished he had phoned Ashley, or at least gotten Aeris to talk to Ronny. Things would be much easier that way.

"Haha, yeah okay ya freaken spaz. We'll be right out. Which exit?"

Leo breathed out a relived sigh. "Number 8. Please hurry Ron. I really can't be late tonight." He pleaded.

"Heh, you're parents still mad about last time?" Leo told him "yes" in an overly-enthusiastic matter which made his friend laugh before telling Leo that he, Shawn and Ashley would see him in around three minutes time. Leo quickly thanked him and hung up. He stuck his phone back in his pocket, being sure to take a quick glance at the digital clock while doing so. It read 9:53. Despite the late time, Leo held onto the small hope that he would make it on time tonight.

Leo walked back to his car to wait for his friends. Aeris, who had finally managed to bring her heart rate down to a normal level, continued to lean against the passenger door with her arms crossed over her chest. When she saw Leo lean up against the front of the jeep, she gave a quiet scowl and glared over at him.

"You drive like a fucking lunatic."

Leo grinned and snickered. "Sorry, I just really can't afford to be late. My parents will kill me."

Aeris stood up from her lean and stepped over to Leo. She gave him a quizzical look, trying to figure out why he was so worried about being late.

"Why is it such a big deal anyways?" She asked him. "I mean, it's not like you're parents are hard asses, so why all of a sudden is it imperative that you're on time?"

Leo laughed nervously. He could trust Aeris, right? Of course! She wouldn't tell anyone at school…

"Weeeell, last weekend me and the guys decided to…try something different for fun…" As he said this, Aeris face-palmed and groaned in annoyance, not over Leo, but over herself for not knowing Leo would be in trouble for doing something stupid with Shawn and Ronny.

"What did you do?" She asked flatly.

A large troll-smile graced Leo's lips. He brought back the memory with a great fondness.

"You remember how on Monday you were saying that you're dad came home and he was kinda pissed?" Aeris slowly nodded her head yes, apparently oblivious as to where Leo was going with the story.

"Well, long story short, we found an old shopping cart, brought it over to the harbor, went up a hill, and rode it off a dock into the lake."

As Leo concluded the short version of his tale of mischief and teenage stupidity, Aeris buried her face deeper into her paw. He finished by telling her that her dad had been called because an elderly woman had seen what they were doing and called the police. The only reason the trio hadn't been arrested was because her father, Daniel Cole, knew that the three would never steal and instead let them off with a warning.

"But oh MAN, you shoulda seen how pissed Ashley was!" Leo exclaimed, spreading his arms wide to assert the statement. "I've never seen her so mad Aeris! It was crazy! She was all like 'how could you do something so stupid? You could've DIED!'. It's like she was saying we didn't know how to swim."

"Wait, how did Ashley find out?"

"Shawn was a dumbass and told her! Then Ronny got pissed at Shawn, and Ash got pissed at Ronny, then some freaken cranky grampa started yelling at us to shut up! It was just one big crazy mess."

Aeris brought her face out of her paw then, and gave Leo the most disapproving look she could give, shaking her head back and forth all the while.

"I swear, when you three get together, a small piece of hell breaks loose."

Leo laughed loud and unhindered. It was true. Whenever he, Ronny and Shawn had free time on their hands and were temporarily bored of video gaming, they could be found around Toronto causing all sorts of trouble. They never did anything illegal, but that fact didn't keep the police from hounding their every move. Luckily they had an "inside man" in the form of Aeris' father, who was fairly fond of the three boys, often times vouching for them when they were brought into the station or were faced with the possibility of arrest. However, he seemed to getting low on patients when it came to getting them out of trouble, because when he was being called out to Toronto due to the three boys boredom, he called each of their parents and informed them all that while their sons weren't being arrested, the police had been called because of the ruckus they had caused. While the Blues and Shawn's father Mike weren't terribly mad at either of their children, Karen and Leo Leonardo were heavily disappointed in Leo for causing so much trouble for Daniel Cole, issuing him a strict 10:30 curfew that applied to all days of the week with no exceptions.

It didn't bother Leo that much, knowing full well that everything could have gone over much worse had it not been for Mr. Cole. It was the reason that he made a point of always trying to either make it home early or on time, as to not test his parent's patients any further. So far he had been doing a good job, but tonight, if he failed to make it home on time, he couldn't even begin to imagine what sort of punishment he would receive.

"Well, just be lucky that you're parents were cool enough to not completely ground you." Aeris stepped forward and took a position next to Leo on the front of the jeep. "If that had been me," She brought her paw up to her neck and dragged her thumb across it in a straight line. Leo knew what she meant with the gesture, mentally agreeing with her.

A few minutes of silence passed as the two cats waited for their friends to arrive. After anxiously waiting on the front of Leo's jeep, they saw Ronny, Ashley and Shawn walk out the door in front of them and signaled them over to where they were. They waved to them in response and quickly made their way over to the jeep.

"Yo Leo! Aeris! What keptcha, guys?" Shawn ran ahead of the other two cats and jumped in between Leo and Aeris, wrapping both his arms around the shoulders of his two friends in a friendly manner.

Leo couldn't help but smile. He was stressed, but it was nearly impossible not to feel happy whenever Shawn was around. The guy radiated positivity. Aeris responded in the same manner, wrapping her own arm around the top of the black cat.

"Leo felt it necessary to have me hit him." Aeris informed him.

"So didja?" Shawn asked.

"Yeah, but not very hard." Aeris replied with a smirk.

"Whaaat! Come on Aeris! Be mean girl! Smack this bitch around a bit!" Shawn spoke loudly as he brought the arm around Leo back towards him and quickly smacked Leo twice across the face in a similar fashion as Aeris had earlier, only much harder, an audible "smack" coming from his friend's face with each contact made.

"OW! Dick!" Leo hadn't been expecting the twin smacks, and responded in turn by hitting the back of Shawn's head.

Ronny and Ashley now made their way to the jeep, and questioned Leo and Aeris as to why they had took so long in the same manner as Shawn, with them giving the same answers, before Ashley turned to Aeris and gave her a concerned look.

"You okay Aeris? You're not feeling to bad about the date, are you?"

Aeris got a blank look on her face for a split second before she looked over at Leo. She smiled then and turned back to Ashley, telling her that she was fine. She responded in turn with an evil smile.

"Good" was all she said before she opened the door and stepped into the jeep.

"Good? Why good?" Aeris asked, confused.

Ronny grinned wickedly as he stepped past Aeris into the back of the jeep and sat on the opposite side of Ashley.

"We got a plan for revenge tomorrow." He replied, his voice heavy with evil mischief.

Shawn sat between the two cats in the back and brought his arm around Ashley, all the while snickering madly.

"It'll be good." Ronny told Aeris.

She eyed him suspiciously for a second before smiling and taking her seat at the front of the jeep.

"Make sure of that, kay?"

Ronny smiled wide, baring all his fangs in response to Aeris' request and nodded his head. Then shifted a bit in his seat and called out to Leo, still standing outside of the vehicle looking in at his friends.

"Yo Leo! I thought we were in a hurry!"

Leo immediately snapped too and threw himself into the driver's seat, slamming the door behind him. He threw on his seatbelt and started the engine.

"Hang one everyone! It's gonna be a bumpy ride!" He informed his friends.

Aeris' eyes grew wide as she franticly hurried to tie her own seat belt. Everyone else was too slow, and Leo quickly threw the jeep into drive, speeding out of the mall parking lot and heading towards the main highway, ignoring the shout of bewilderment from his friends in the back.

He needed to get home before 10:30.

If he didn't, he was a dead man.

It was going to be one crazy drive…


	3. Chapter 3

How Do You Know?

Beginnings Arc

Chapter 3: Making Plans For Enemies

If you were driving on highway 401 through the city of Toronto at this moment, you would most likely see a brown 2001 Jeep traveling well above the legal speed limit being driven by a grey cat named Leo Leonardo the third, trying his hardest to ignore the protesting cries of his four friends, Aeris, Shawn, Ronny and Ashley, instead trying to focus on his driving instead of them yelling at him to slow down. He repeatedly apologized to them for being so reckless on the road, but he just couldn't afford to break his curfew. If he did…actually, he was too scared to think about that.

"AHHH! Leo! Slow down!" Ashley yelled as she took the paw of her boyfriend Shawn and squeezed it with an intense death grip, himself returning the gesture with added force.

"Sorry Ash, I just can't be late!" Leo explained, eyes not leaving the sight of the road, afraid that if they did, he would plow them into another car, steer them off one of the many bridges that connected the highway to the rest of the city, or some other unpleasant road-related event.

"I get that Leo, but seriously, slow. The hell. Dooowwn." Ashley retorted, her free hand now dug firmly into the lining of the Jeep's ceiling, claws extended to provide better grip.

This was how the drive went about. Leo and Ashley arguing back and forth while Leo did his best to keep the ride as smooth as he could, though the effort did little to quiet his friends, who shouted, screamed, and generally acted in an overly dramatic matter that, ironically, made it that much harder for Leo to drive.

"Watch out for that truck!" Shawn shouted as Leo swerved to avoid the semi that suddenly decided to slow down, narrowly doing so while plastering everyone in the back against Ashley while she herself was squished against the window, squeaking quietly as her friends crushed her.

"Red Light!" Aeris screamed as Leo slammed on the breaks, slowing the Jeep down from 85 km/h to 0 in about a second-and-a-half, causing his friends to fly forward in their seats, Ronny and Ashley slamming full on in the back of Leo and Aeris' seats, while Shawn and Aeris narrowly avoided face-planting in the dashboard (Aeris for a second time), while Leo remained firmly in place, scarcely moving at all.

After more equally close calls on the road, as well as more complaints being made from his friends over his current style of driving, Leo turned off the 401 onto Parksway Drive, the street Ronny lived on.

Only now did Leo slow his vehicles' speed. It wasn't because he was now driving in a moderately populated neighborhood, nor was it because he knew that there was a strong possibility that there could still be children out and about, but because he felt down-right intimidated here. Parksway Drive was home to some of the more wealthy families of Toronto, Ronny's family, the Blues', included.

Although he felt nothing of the sort around his friend or his parents Zackery and Christina, Leo couldn't help but feel pure self-consciousness whenever he got anywhere NEAR the place, let alone driving his old rusty Jeep through it, knowing full well that there were cats just as young as he was, if not younger, who owned their own vehicles that could put anything he now owned or would ever own to shame. It was the reason he avoided driving to Ronny's house as much as possible, with tonight being one of the rare exceptions.

Trying to push the feeling of being judged out of his mind, Leo slightly quickened the Jeeps pace, once again making his friends let slip exasperations of unease, causing him to feel the signs of a distant annoyance, and quickly drove down the street towards the Blues' house, all the while keeping in mind not to go too fast and earn the glare of anyone that might happen to be watching his old Jeep.

God, I hate coming here… Leo's grip tightened on the steering wheel after seeing a pair of female cats take a quick glance at the Jeep and giggle as they hurried off to where ever they were going. Leo shrunk back in his chair slightly at the sight. He made up his mind right then and there that he was going to avoid driving up to Ronny's house as much as he could, no matter what. After a few more seconds of driving down the painfully rich community, Leo pulled up to Ronny's.

It's nothing short of ironic (or rather, confusing) that the insecurity Leo felt by driving by the other houses on the street all but vanished at the sight of the enormous building that was the Blues' house. It wasn't tall, so much as it was all around big, it's outer walls stretching to about 60 feet on each side, with the second story just as large as the one beneath it. It was a grand building, that much was obvious to anyone that walked by it (in fact, it was one of the larger houses in the community), and the only thing that managed to outshine it's outer beauty was the family that lived within it's walls, it's inner beauty, as one could think of it. Yes, Zackery and Christina Blue were an oddity among the social elite. They weren't shrewd, condescending, nor were they constantly worrying about the quality of their income. Instead they were almost complete opposites of any sort of stereotype one might have of the rich, something they wished were true about the other, more unkind residents of Parksway Drive. Maybe that's why Leo felt so calm around the house. He knew that even if he were to drive one of the most unsightly cars in existence down the street (though to be quite honest, right now it felt as if he were), they would never attempt to belittle him. They were genuinely good people who treated their son's friends with the same kindness and generosity one would expect a parent to show their own child.

The thought made Leo smile, temporarily forgetting his problem as he pulled over in front of the house, spacing out a bit as Ronny became restless in the back seat.

"Leo? Uh, can you let me out now? Please?" Ronny asked in a somewhat uneasy tone, understandably quite shaken from Leo's madman driving. The sight of his home had looked like heaven to him, and he wanted to get out of the Jeep as quickly as possible, afraid that if he didn't, Leo would suddenly speed away from it and put him through another hell on the highway.

Leo continued to stare absent-mindedly at the house, not processing the request of his friend, as if he didn't even hear him. Ronny grew irritated, unbuckling his seatbelt and bringing himself between the small space in between Leo and Aeris' seat to yell at his grey friend.

"Okay, I know my house looks great and all, but Leo, if you don't let me out right now, I WILL EAT YOUR FUCKING FACE!" Ronny sounded serious, but the threat was an empty one at best. Still, it got Leo's attention, snapping him out of his slight daydream and brining him back to reality.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Sorry Ronny," Leo blinked away the last bits of the trance and promptly unlocked the doors of the Jeep.

Ronny, eager to exit the vehicle as quickly as possible, wasted no time in doing so. As soon as he heard the locks of the door click, Ronny threw open his door and leapt towards the ground, landing on all fours when he did so, staring at the concrete beneath him as though it were some long-lost love he had just reunited with. He acted in the same way.

"Sweet, beautiful EARTH!" Ronny cried out, a small tear forming in the corner of one of his dark blue eyes. "I'm never leaving you again! I promise!" Ronny then brought his face towards the ground and proceeded to kiss the sidewalk numerous times, gaining some shaky laughs from his friends, save for Leo, thinking it typical of him to behave in such a manner after the frightening ordeal he and everyone else had just experienced.

Leo gave a slight huff. "It wasn't THAT bad," He said to Ronny.

Ronny whipped his head around, his face overcome with a bewildered expression. "Not that bad? THAT WAS A GODDAMN NIGHTMARE!" He replied in an enthusiastic manner. "Christ, it's a good thing we didn't go to the food court before you came and got us, 'cuz if we had, that be one nasty smelling Jeep."

His last comment drew a sudden, loud laugh from Ashley, though she quickly silenced herself when Aeris looked over her seat and gave her a quick glare. Leo simply rolled his eyes and shifted slightly in his seat to get more comfortable.

"Whatever Ron," Leo glanced at his friend from the corner of his eye, trying his hardest not to smile when he saw Ronny sticking his tongue in his direction, though he ultimately failed, a grin stretching across his face as Ronny came up to Jeep to close his door and say a quick good-bye to his friends.

"Just giving you a hard time, Leo." Ronny playfully punched the gray cat in the shoulder and gave him a wide smile. Leo still bore the thin smile his friend brought about earlier, and the two exchanged a quick bro-clasp to say good-bye to one-another.

"I'll text you in an hour." Ronny informed Leo.

"What for?" Leo asked, confused as to why Ronny would text him so late at night.

Ronny's body went limp temporarily, and he stared at Leo as if he had said something incredibly stupid (quite a common event, actually).

"The plan, Leo? Y'know, the plan to get back at that douche-bag for standing Aeris up?" Aeris shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the reminder of tonight's event.

Leo, however, did not notice the pink cat squirm, and nodded his head at Ronny.

"Sounds like a plan." He gave his friend a quick smile as he turned back to check the time on his radio. It read 10:00 pm.

"Shit, we gotta roll Ron." Leo told his friend. "I only got another half hour."

Ronny backed away from the vehicle with a quiet sigh. "Alright, but make sure you stay up tonight. I don't wanna have to walk you through everything." He paused and let a snarky grin appear on his face. "Just like in Twilight Princess".

Leo replied in turn by giving the yellow cat a firmly raised finger and giving him a smile that said "fuck you". Ronny simply laughed away the quasi-aggressive gesture in stride. Leo shifted the Jeep into drive, once-again making his remaining friends squeak in fear (Ashley being the loudest), and they all gave a final wave to Ronny, who shouted "don't die" in response. Leo gave a quick toot of the horn as the Jeep rounded the corner that would bring the group of friends back on the highway, and they quickly disappeared from Ronny's sight. He sighed, relieved to be home, especially after Leo's latest display of automobilemanship, but hesitated a second as he looked at the spot where the brown Jeep disappeared, and he chuckled lightly to himself. He couldn't wait to hear what Leo thought of his and Shawn's plan to get revenge on Spencer. Knowing the gray cat, he would be more than happy with it. Smiling still, Ronny turned towards his house and casually walked up to it, opened the door, and walked in, not to be seen again until tomorrow morning.

Around three minutes later, Leo and his friends are again on the 401 (speeding terribly) this time heading southward towards the lake where Shawn lived. One thing different about the drive compared to earlier was that the misfortune Leo had on the road before seemed to have been lifted somewhat; he encountered very few red lights, passed less cars, as there were now fewer one the road, and didn't have to take any risky moves in order to get as far ahead as he could in traffic.

All in all, it was a rather peaceful drive, especially compared to what the four cats had gone through just a few minutes earlier. Of course, there were the few times the slight tranquility of the drive was broken, either by the honking of a horn belonging to a car Leo might have unintentionally cut off, or the few times he had to swiftly slow down because of an oncoming police car, but it was generally much calmer than before. If it weren't for Leo's excessive speeding, one might have even called it enjoyable, though you would probably change your mind if you were one of the other three cats, each of them lightly clinging onto something firmly in place, just in case the drive became as chaotic as it had earlier that night.

Fortunately, their actions seemed unnecessary, and they soon eased their grips on whatever it was they had their claws dug into, and slowly relaxed as Leo continued his (somewhat) smooth driving.

After about a minute of nothing happening, Leo got bored, and noticing his friends' relaxed postures, decided with an evil grin that he wanted to have some fun.

Checking over his shoulder to make sure there were no cars that could hit them when he put his plan into action, he saw that there was indeed none that could cause them any harm. Happy with his observation, Leo cleared his throat in preparation for his little surprise.

"Hey guys." Leo spoke ominously to his friends, trying his hardest to make his voice sound as casual as possible.

"Yeah, what?" Aeris answered as she stared out the window at nothing in particular.

Leo smiled wide, all his teeth becoming visible as his lips stretched to the farthest corners of his face in anticipation. "This" he replied as he quickly slammed on the breaks.

In the short amount of time that he had his foot pressed on the break pedal, the wheels of the Jeep screamed in protest against the road and Leo and his friends all shot forward in their seats, each of the three other cats screaming out in shock over the sudden, violent change in velocity while Leo broke out in uncontrollable laughter.

"Leo!" Aeris slapped the gray cat in the back of the head as she regained herself, straightening out her now messy hair. "What the hell was that?"

"Fun!" He replied as he moved his foot back over to the gas pedal and brought the car back to its original speed, chuckling all the while.

"That wasn't funny!" Ashley piped in from the back seat, her arms crossed over her chest and cheeks puffed out by a breath she was holding in, trying her hardest to look something between cute and pissed off. Her expression only served to make Leo chuckle with more merit, causing the cheeks of the brown cat to become red with irritation. Finding that scolding Leo would ultimately make her get more upset, Ashley gave a dramatic "hmph!" and turned to face out her window.

Leo finished chuckling to himself quietly and apologized to his friends. The drive went on without him having anymore 'fun'. Save for Leo's music playing softly in the background there was a relative silence in the Jeep, only breaking when he drove over a pothole or some other common road-related disturbances, and around two minutes later the brown Jeep pulled up to Lakeview Apartments, the small apartment building Shawn and his father, the Roys, called home.

There wasn't anything outstanding about the building, especially compared to the majesty that was Ronny's house. The apartment had three stories on it (Shawn lived on the second) and was covered in a generic mixture of white, gray and beige siding, making the building seem extra bland. The only thing truly exciting about the building was the miniature skate park that was on the roof, but even that couldn't really be considered exciting, since as far as his friends knew, Shawn and his father were the only ones in the building that owned skateboards, and were the only ones they had ever seen actually use the small park. Even the park itself was nothing spectacular; it had two curved ramps, a small half-pipe, a medium sized bowl dug into the floor, and of course there was the railing that outlined the perimeter of the roof. One could grind on it if they were brave enough, but the drop to the ground below discouraged anyone, even Shawn himself, from ever attempting it. It just wasn't worth the risk.

Unlocking the door for his black-colored friend, Leo looked over his shoulder and asked Shawn if he would be needing a ride to school tomorrow.

"Nah," He replied as he stepped out the door. "I'll just ride my board." Shawn was about to exit the Jeep when he turned back and looked at Ashley. "Hey, how 'bout me and my dad give you a lift home Ash?" He asked with a smile on his face. "It'll give Leo more time to get home, and I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind."

Ashley smiled appreciatively at Shawn. "Thanks baby, but I don't want too hurt Leo's feelings…"

The other three cats gave her a confused look.

Leo was most puzzled. "Um, how would that hurt my feelings Ash?" He asked in a joking matter.

"Well," She began, her mouth opening wide as she raised a finger as if to state some highly important point, but her eyebrows quickly furrowed. "Ummm…" Her eyes looked up at the ceiling of the Jeep as if to search for an answer to Leo's question, then she abruptly realized that there was none.

She laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of her head in slight embarrassment. "I guess it really wouldn't would it?" She asked Leo, who in turn replied boastfully with "not really" and gave Ashley an understanding smile, saying that while he appreciated the fact that she didn't want to offend him, he could use all the extra time that he got, and it would probably be best if she got a ride from Shawn and Mike.

"Besides," He added a little slyly. "I bet Shawn wants to do more than just drive you home."

At that remark Shawn's eyes grew wide and his lips pulled close together to form a small dot on his face. There was a bold blush present on his cheeks, made even more visible from his jet black fur, and he turned sharply to face Leo, his face containing both embarrassment and a small trace of anger.

"Shut up Leo man!" Shawn said with a voice that was slightly louder than he had intended it to be, serving only to make both Leo and Aeris chuckle with amusement while Ashley blushed and looked at Shawn with a shy smile, her own blush becoming present on her face.

After letting the other two cats quiet their laughter, Ashley asked asked Leo if he was sure he didn't mind Shawn giving her a ride home, to which he replied no, he didn't mind, especially considering Shawn was her boyfriend and that he was trying to help him out by giving her a ride home, but that he still appreciated the fact that she was just trying to be kind.

"I try!" Ashley responded in her cheerful, upbeat voice.

Leo smiled at her in turn then turned back to faced Shawn. "You sure you're not gonna need a ride tomorrow? I don't mind."

Shawn waved a paw at Leo. "It's all good man, but thanks." He then leaned to the side and peered into the Jeep and caught a quick glance at the radio clock, reading the time it displayed on its face.

"You might wanna get a move on though buddy," He told Leo, tilting his head towards the radio. "If you're gonna make it in time."

Leo turned to look at the clock and saw that it read ten after. He didn't have to leave right now, he and Aeris lived quite close to Shawn, just a few streets down, and their houses were only four doors down from each other. If he wanted, he could stay and chat with Shawn a bit longer, but Leo knew enough that it was always better to be early as opposed to on time.

Deciding that Shawn was right, Leo said a quick good-bye to him and Ashley and began to drive away slowly, waving his paw along with Aeris to them as they eventually made their way back onto the main road. They waved back, and when they say the Jeep speed away towards Leo and Aeris' street, Shawn and Ashley smiled to each other and walked hand in hand up to Shawn's apartment.

Five minutes later, Leo and Aeris have pulled into their street and are slowly pulling up to Aeris' house.

"It's nothing special," Her father would say once when Leo first came over many years ago, "But it's home."

In truth, Leo thought it was a fairly decent house. It had two floors, a ground floor and a basement, and wasn't bad looking at all. It had blue and white siding and a stone archway over the front door. In all honesty he thought it looked much better than his own house with it's beige and yellow color scheme, but of course you could chalk this up to pure modesty on Leo's part. Once he had brought the Jeep to a full stop, he put the parking break on, turned the music fully down, and turned to look Aeris directly in the eyes.

"Alright, be straight up," He began in a friendly but serious tone. "Are you okay? You haven't spoken much at all tonight. Usually not such a big deal, but with all things considered…"

Leo trailed off when he noticed Aeris had turned away and was looking at him from the corner of her eye with a small smile present on her face. He sighed and shifted his head to look her directly in the eyes once again in an attempt to figure out what exactly how she was feeling right now.

"I don't wanna bug you about it Aeris, but if you're feeling down about tonight, please, tell me."

The smile upon Aeris' face grew larger and she leaned in closer to Leo and gave him a small hug.

"I'm fine Leo, really." She told him. "You don't need to worry about me. Just make sure you and the others get back at him good for me, okay?"

Feeling slightly defeated but hugging Aeris back, Leo sighed and let a smile of his own come across his face.

"Alright, but if you're feeli-"

"Leo." Aeris cut him off mid-sentence. She pulled herself out of the hug and gave him a look of mock-annoyance. "If you keep asking me if I'm all bummed out about some stupid date, which by the way, I wasn't all that excited about, I'm gonna hit you. Hard this time."

Leo laughed at Aeris' aggressive yet playful threat, feeling in the back of his mind that she truly was okay. He gave her a warm smile.

"Sorry for making such a big deal out of it."

She gave him a thankful smile. "It's fine, but it's really not necessary." She informed him as she stepped out of the Jeep. "But I appreciate it."

She closed the door behind her and turned back to face Leo through the window. She leaned down on the edge of the door and looked over at Leo, who looked back with a bit of a sleepy expression on his face.

"Tired?" Aeris asked.

"Yeah." Leo responded, rubbing his eyes to emphasize the answer. "Long night I guess."

"You can say that again." Aeris responded as she let out a deep yawn, herself feeling just as tired from the night's events as Leo himself was. The two friends smiled to each other and remained silent for a second before Aeris stood up from the window's edge and turned to walk towards her house.

"I'll see you tomorrow Leo." She said to him as she slowly walked toward her front door.

"Yeah. I'll pick you up around eight, okay?" He asked her, despite knowing that he was her usual ride to school.

"Okay." She was at the top of the steps to her doorway now, and she turned around to give one final wave good-bye to Leo. "Thanks again."

Leo smiled and waved to her. He went to shift the Jeep into drive, but at the last second he turned back around and looked at Aeris.

"I'll be up if you need to talk."

Aeris sighed and opened the door to her house, her back turned away from Leo.

"Good night Leo." With that, she stepped into her house and shut the door behind her, leaving Leo to chuckle to himself in the Jeep at the pink cat's nostalgic behavior.

She's fine. He thought to himself, smiling. After a few seconds of just staring at the spot where Aeris entered the house, Leo shifted his vehicle into drive and made the short drive up to his own house. He pulled into the driveway and quickly parked the Jeep beside his parent's black BMW. He turned the old vehicle off quietly, sneaking a quick glance at the clock before doing so, and smiled a happy smile when he saw what it read:

10:25.

He had made it. The speeding and the outrageous driving had al been worth it. The fact made Leo's spirits lift greatly, and he walked with a slight skip to his step as he made his way up to the front door. He stepped in and quietly closed the door behind him, knowing that at this hour, Tommy would most likely be in bed, sleeping. Letting out a sigh of relaxation, Leo kicked off his shoes and hung his car keys on the small rack beside the door, just below his parents', and decided to see if they were in the living room. He saw them both siting at the couch, watching what he presumed to be "The Apprentice", and smiled at them when they noticed him walk into the room.

"Hey guys," Leo said casually as he made his way to the armchair perpendicular to the couch his parents sat on. "Tommy asleep?" He asked as he plopped down onto the seat.

"Yep. Went to bed an hour ago." His mother, Karen, answered. Leo nodded and sat back in the armchair, stretching out his arms and legs in an effort to relax.

"By the way," Karen said as she stood up. "You just barely made it, young man." She walked over to Leo and placed a paw in his hair, scratching it a bit to annoy her son. Leo didn't mind, however, and simply chuckled as he felt his mother scratch his head.

"Yeah, I know, but I DID make it." He answered with a triumphant smile. "That's what counts, right?"

Karen sighed and looked down upon Leo with a faint smile. "I suppose." She walked back over to the couch and sat back down to resume watching the program. The Leonardo's' all sat there watching Donald Trump fire yet another unlucky possible candidate, and when the show's credits began to roll by the screen, Leo stood up and told his parents with a yawn that he was heading to bed.

"Just be quiet and not wake you're brother." Mr. Leonardo told his son as he too stood up and stretched.

"Will do." Leo responded as he began to make his way over to the stairs. "Night."

"Good night son." Both his parents wished him good night as Leo ascended the stair case and slowly made his way to his room, making sure to be as quiet as possible while passing by Tommy's, and eventually entered his room and shut the door behind him. He quickly switched off the light and threw the t-shirt he had been wearing that night into his laundry hamper. He took out his phone and iPod and laid the two on his nightstand before falling into bed.

As much as he wanted to go to sleep at that moment, Leo kept himself awake to wait for Ronny's text message detailing the plans to get revenge on Spencer. After what felt like hours of waiting and nearly falling asleep, Leo heard his phone vibrate. Relieved, he reached over for it and saw that Ronny's number was present on the caller ID. He quickly flipped the phone open and saw a rather long wall of text present on the screen. Figuring it was going to be a long read, Leo looked at the beginning of the text and read the first few words his friend had wrote.

"Okay, here's the plan…"

_**To Be Continued…**_

**A/N: Well, it sucks for me to tell you guys this, but chapter 4 will not be out for some time as I'll be busy working on a DeviantArt exclusive project for a friend of mine. It's called VGC, and as you can guess, it's another VG Cats fic, but this one is different. How? Swing on by my DA page and find out!**


	4. Chapter 4

How Do You Know?

Beginnings Arc

Chapter 4: Revenge is Sweet

Chemistry. Leo hated the word almost as much as he did the class. It seemed that whenever the grey cat had to endure an hour-and-a-half of the subject, he always wound up creating a deadly chemical bomb as opposed to the harmless compounds everyone but him seemed to be perfectly able to produce. Add to that that none of his friends shared the class with him, always forcing him to partner up with either one of the snooty popular girls or the cocky jocks, neither of which he found pleasant. Today there was not much else different with the class, Leo being partnered up with someone he could just endure, then waiting not-so-patiently for the bell to ring. But today Leo had a reason besides longing to be free of the confines of the classroom.

He and Ronny had a spare next block, and were going to execute their plan of revenge against Spencer during the small amount of time they had to do so before the end of the school day. The plan Ronny had come up with just barely fit into the time window they had, but of course with the two of them, and once he had slipped out of history class, Shawn, it would just be possible to pull it off without much of a hitch. The only thing he had to do was make it through this one chem class and everything would be set in motion.

Easier said than done, unfortunately…

The class dragged on for what felt like hours to Leo, each tick of the clock sending him a painful reminder that there was still a great amount of time until he would be free. He tried to keep a positive mood about him, thinking about a new game he was going to try once he got home later, then with a snicker about what Spencer's reaction might be once he saw what Leo and the other two had in store for him. These worked for a little while, but sooner as opposed to later Leo found that even thoughts of sweet revenge couldn't fend off the griping feelings of boredom from the gray cat. For ninety agonizing minutes he waited for the bell to signal his freedom, putting up with his teacher lecturing him and everyone else on the importance of safety in the lab (he had given it countless times before), his partner (a popular girl) saddling him with all the work involving the chemicals and mixing them while she applied her oh-so important make-up, then having to put up with both the teacher and the girl yelling at him when the mixture began to hiss and gave a sharp "pop", shattering the glass beaker it was in and causing a great commotion in the classroom. Needless to say it was a very unpleasant hour-and-a-half for Leo.

It was probably why he rushed out of the classroom so fast when the bell rang.

In a fraction of a second Leo was in the hallway and vaulting over towards his locker, doing little to avoid the small groups of fellow students that had gathered in the halls, preferring instead to plow right through them while they shouted angrily after him. He reached his locker some seconds later, and after tossing his books inside with a thud, and took off towards the meeting place he and Ronny had agreed on earlier that morning; the school's northwest parking lot. He made his way at a much more leisurely pace than before, tucking his hands into his pockets and whistling while he made lazily walked down the slowly emptying hallways.

He reached the end of the northwest hallway and stepped through the door leading outdoors, smiling as his fur met the crisp, warm September air. He searched around for his yellow friend, and when at first he didn't see him Leo leaned against the wall of the school and pulled out his DS, entertaining himself with "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks" for a time before he heard the door swing open and saw Ronny step through it.

"Shesh, took you long enough." Leo greeted his friend by shoving his head towards the ground in a playful manner. "What took you so long, thumb got stuck up your ass?"

"Hey Leo! Fuck you! There were these amazing chicks in front of the gym and they were into me!" Ronny pushed Leo back in response to the gray cat's friendly roughhousing as he leaned against the wall beside his friend. Leo snorted while he stuck his DS back into his pocket.

"You think every girl is into you Ron."

Ronny waved his paw dismissively at Leo. "Whatever man. They were into the Turbo Lover, they just might not have known it."

Leo replied with an unconvinced sounding "mmm" as he stood up from the wall, Ronny just behind him. He clapped his hands together anxiously and smiled with anticipation as he turned around to face Ronny.

"So," Leo began, "You're sure he comes out this way?"

Ronny nodded his head. "Ash said that he's got physics in first block and math last, plus I think I might have seen him around Parksway if I'm thinking of the same guy Ash described him as."

"Which is?"

"Tall, dark fur, brown eyes, and muscular."

"He's buff!"

"Oh don't be such a fucking pussy Leo. Who cares if he's buff? We'll be on the roof, and he won't. It's foolproof!"

Leo raised an unconvinced eyebrow at Ronny. "Christ now you sound like me…"

Ronny waved Leo lack of faith in him with a confident smile. Leo frowned and slacked his body with a feeling of unease and all around dread over Ronny's cockiness. Ronny simply rolled his eyes in response to the gray cat's doubt in him. In Ronny's mind, Leo had nothing to worry about. He and Shawn had spent almost every minute of their time last night devising a plan to get back at Spencer while Leo was away getting Aeris. Of course it hadn't been an easy task, mostly because of;

A) Shawn's deep-rooted distain of following a schedule, even ones that were made for his own benefit.

And…

B) Ronny's prideful, almost crippling confidence in himself, believing that the universe would work in his favor and prevent any problems from arising.

Thankfully both friends had been able to overcome their prejudices and worked out the base of their plan out before Leo picked them up. After the hell that was his and everyone else's ride home, Ronny wasted no time in working towards making everything perfect, spending the better half of his night ironing out all the kinks and possible loose ends to ensure success for him and his friends, finally relaying the finished product to Leo in the vicinity of twelve and one-thirty (texting at 12:30: not fun), and generally didn't get much of a decent sleep last night, but he didn't really mind. Soon, he, Leo and Shawn would get to extract their revenge upon that douche of a cat Spencer and laugh at his expense. Ronny felt the need to laugh manically at these thoughts, but restrained himself for the sake of avoiding a great amount of embarrassment.

Leo stifled out a slight yawn and stretched his arms out towards the sky and blinked his eyes to shoo away some his own tiredness and turned his gaze towards the roof of the school, wondering how Ronny intended for them to get up there.

"So," Leo brought both his paws to the back of his head and leaned back some to get a better look at the roof. "How exactly so we get up there?" He questioned.

Ronny too looked up towards the roof with a look of confidence in his eyes. A small, sly grin came across his face as he shifted his eyes back over to Leo, who looked back at him with curiosity abundant in his green eyes. With a pat on the back, Ronny tilted his head towards the right and told Leo to follow him. He did so without objection and followed close behind Ronny, only about two steps behind him all the way, until they came up to a small bush growing closely by the school's wall. Leo looked down at the bush, confused, until Ronny began to bush the branches away and revealed to Leo's eyes a small, folded up sawhorse that was probably five feet in height. Smiling, Leo looked back over at Ronny and could see a smug expression on his face along with a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes.

Clapping his hands together, Leo leaned forwards and picked up the miniature ladder off the ground.

"Let's get at it then."

==One Minute Later==

"AAAA! FUCK!"

"Sorry!"

"Dammit Leo!"

"SORRY!"

A rather awkward scene was taking place; Leo was perched up on Ronny's shoulders, attempting to grab ahold of the roof's ledge, all the while pulling at his hair to give himself some sort of leverage, all while Ronny stood atop the small sawhorse attempting to give Leo a strong foothold while the gray cat pulled relentlessly at his hair. Not an easy task by any means.

"Here! I think I might have it!" Leo reached out slowly for the edge of the building, bringing the majority of his weight well past where Ronny could catch him in case he fell. He almost grabbed hold, but at the last possible moment Ronny shifted his weight back to his front leg. Not being able to look up and see what Leo was doing, he believed that he was giving them a better quality of balance, but instead brought both of them falling face-forwards to the ground. They landed harshly, Leo coming to rest on top of Ronny while his face got buried in the dirt of the Earth. Leo moaned in pain, rubbing the spot he had fallen on hardest, while Ronny began to fume over what had happened.

Leo picked himself up from the spot he was sitting on Ronny and began to brush the dirt off himself. He noticed Ronny was still stuck firmly into the ground, his head not moving at all while the rest of his limbs were pushing were pushing against the ground in a futile effort to free the head from the Earth.

With a chuckle, Leo went over to Ronny and wrapped his arms around his torso, giving a mighty heave that brought Ronny right out of the ground and onto his ass along with Leo. He whipped his head from side to side to shake the dirt loose from his hair and spit out a substantial amount of the stuff while Leo stood back up and helped Ronny to his feet. Both turned back towards the wall they had almost climbed, Leo with a look of disappointment in his eyes, Ronny with a look of frustration. Leo soon tore his gaze from the wall and set it on the sawhorse. They had been so close to finally getting up that damn wall! If only he had been a bit faster, he and Ronny might be one the roof right now getting everything ready until Shawn came along. He stole a quick in Ronny's direction and saw that he too was looking intently at the sawhorse with his arms crossed firmly over his chest and a clear huff coming out of his lips. Leo sighed tiredly and leaned up against Ronny, who glanced at him from the corner of his eye as if to say, "well fuck."

Leo smiled wearily. "I guess it's time to try again."

Five minutes, seven tries, and a scraped elbow later, Leo was finally on the roof. It hadn't been easy; Ronny had nearly had it and would have thrown Leo off his shoulders if the gray cat hadn't been quick enough to grab ahold of the ledge and hoist himself up. He breathed deeply, exhausted over all the other attempts he and Ronny had made, and took a bit of time to catch his breath before leaning over the edge to extend a paw down to Ronny and help him up. Once the other cat was safely on the roof with him, Leo sat down with a dull "thump" and pulled out his DS once again, content that they had finally achieved their goal. Ronny sat down as well, his back pressed up against Leo's, and he pulled out his iPod to keep himself from getting bored until Shawn arrived with everything else they needed. The two friends just sat there a good ten minutes, playing "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks" and listening to Godsmack's "Speak", glad that they were both allowed this small time to relax and rejuvenate themselves.

About ten minutes passed by when Leo heard the door swing open. He stuck his DS back in his pocket and tapped Ronny on the shoulder to get his attention. They both stood up and crept cautiously towards the edge of the roof, making sure to keep their head low and out of sight, in case it was a teacher that had stepped outside.

Slowly, Leo pocked his head above the small wall in front of him and peered down at the ground. He could make out something that looked like Shawn; black fur and a slight build, but he couldn't really be sure. Figuring that he wouldn't be spotted if it was a teacher, Leo stood up and leaned forward a bit so he might have a better chance at getting a clear look at whoever was on the ground.

He still couldn't see who it was!

Frustrated, Leo leaned completely out over the ground below. He pressed his paw up against his brows, and was finally getting a good glimpse at the person below, when…

He slipped.

It seemed that without intending to, Leo had kept moving his body farther out to the edge, doing so until the upper half of his body was well past the point where he could keep his balance. Realizing his mistake to late, Leo stumbled forward and began to fall face forward at the ground.

"Oh shit!"

Leo felt his legs go over the edge, and the air rush past his face. He could see the ground coming up to him quickly, so he clenched his eyes tight to avoid having to see himself slam into it. He braced for impact, so to speak, but right before he plowed headlong into the dirt, Leo felt a paw wrap itself around his tail and thus stopped him from slamming into the Earth beneath him. Leo's eyes shot open at the instant he felt himself stop, and he turned his eyes upwards to see Ronny leaning over the edge of the roof with one paw holding his tail in a death grip while the other was pressed firmly against the wall he was leaning upon so that he wouldn't topple down to the ground along with Leo.

The initial instinct he had was to thank Ronny for saving his tail (literally), but the yellow cat seemed to have read Leo's mind, and before his gray furred friend could say a single word, Ronny hissed an urgent "shhh", hoping to dissuade Leo from making the slightest of sounds with his intentionally harsh tone of voice. Though at first confused as to why Ronny would want him to keep his mouth clamped shut, Leo quickly remembered that there was an unidentified person walking around on the ground who had the strong possibility of being a teacher. The thought of being caught sent ice up Leo's back, especially considering that he was already neck deep in hot water with his parents as it was. Getting a weeklong suspension for misbehavior when the school year had just started definitely wouldn't earn him many points with his parents. Ronny was just as terrified of being discovered by a teacher as Leo, due to his countless trips to the principal's office as well as the many "strikes" he had accumulated in the years of his high school career, both of which he was sure had reached a grand enough number to earn him his own suspension from school, and was equally as afraid as his friend was of the punishment he could receive from his parents.

Both of the two teenagers dreaded the thought of being caught, and would do anything to keep the thought of it from becoming a reality.

So with that in mind, you could imagine the shock that shoot up both their spines with what happened next.

"Ahem." Came a stern, authorative voice from behind Leo that made the made the fur on his and Ronny's bodies stand firmly in the air while their eyes became as wide as the moon itself, the blacks that were their pupils shrinking into nothing more than mere dots. An air of dread descended upon the scene taking place as the two teenagers realized with heavy hearts that they had been caught, has their opportunity at revenge taken away from them, and that they probably weren't going to see the light of day again for some time. Leo clamped his eyes tightly shut, his childlike intellect telling him that if he did so, there might be a chance at whoever it was behind, whom he was now certain was a teacher by the tone of the voice, would lose interest in him hanging in the air and leave him and Ronny alone. Despite his "best" effort, Leo could make out no indication that the person behind him had left, so deciding that he might as well face the fire that was going to be rained down on him with what small amount of dignity he had left.

Managing a crooked turn to the left, Leo kept his eyes pointed straight downwards, hoping to avoid the glare whoever-this-was would undoubtedly be wearing. Coming to a slow stop, Leo prepared for the scolding he was about to receive, when he noticed something very peculiar.

The sure-to-be-a-teacher was wearing brown flip-flops. Flip-flops. Leo ran through the list he had in his head of every teacher he knew in the school, which was, for better or for worse, all of them, and not once had he ever seen any one of them wear flip-flops, not even in the summer months.

As he raised his eyes to meet with the ones belonging to this mysterious now-suspicious-might-be-a-teacher, Leo noticed more and more things that stood out and screamed to him that this was in fact, not a teacher.

There was the faded denim shorts, the white muscle shirt, the piece of string with a sharks tooth hanging on it, the tribal-symbol-ridden wrist band, and, probably most outstanding, the black and white fur that covered the body of this person.

Leo knew only one person that dressed like this, had this kind of fur, and had the audacity, the nerve, to pull off such a low, dirty trick such as this without so much as a second though about the consequences.

Shawn. Fucking. Roy. The black furred, green eyed cat that could be considered Leo's only rival for the title of the school's biggest idiot.

As Leo's green eyes came to meet the similarly colored orbs of his Californian friend, all he could do was stare with a dumbstruck face at Shawn, who sported his own face of smug triumph, a wide grin stretched across his face while his eyes had a twinkle of joyous mischievousness in them. Both knew that Shawn had pulled a mastermind prank on the two cats before him, and the thought made Shawn Roy bask in the light of it while the realization that they had been duped had yet to take effect on Leo and Ronny's psyche. Capturing the moment for himself, Shawn took a step back, having a good idea of what was to come next, and let his grin stretch off to the farthest corners of his mouth.

"I don't think you're supposed to be up there, Mr. Leonardo."

Leo flew into a rage at those words. He slashed at Shawn over and over again with his claws, the Californian being just out of his reach, while Ronny tried desperately to keep both himself and Leo from plummeting down to the ground. As Leo was having his little tantrum, Shawn was bent completely over, laughing so hard that it made his stomach hurt, while tears brought upon by the laughter rolled down his face. This continued on for about a minute, concluding when Leo calmed down enough for Ronny to reel him back onto the roof, while Shawn got the last bits of his little joke out of his system via snickering, earning him slightly pissed off expressions of annoyance from his two friends up on the school's roof.

"You're a prick, you know that?" Ronny called down to Shawn, who smiled wickedly at the man-friendly insult.

"I love you too, Ronald." He replied before breaking out in another fit of snickering, this time joined be Leo, while Ronny's face became red with anger and steam shot out his ears.

"DON'T CALL ME RONALD YOU FUCKING POTHEAD! IT'S RONNY, AND YOU DAMN-WELL KNOW IT'S RONNY!"

Shawn and Leo couldn't help themselves. Everyone in their small group of friends knew how much Ronny (Ronald) hated being referred to by his legal name, believing it to be unflattering and just plain-old geeky, as he put it, and made a point of getting everyone to call him Ronny instead. Of course everyone bugged the living shit out of him for it, and as hard as he tried to keep a level head, Ronny was unsuccessful more times than not.

Letting Ronny sit there and simmer, Leo sat on the edge of the roof and looked down at Shawn wiping away a tear in the wake of his most recent victory over Ronny, and he looked up too see Leo looking down at him. He smiled up at the gray cat, both of them forgetting that Shawn had just pulled a fast one on Leo, and Leo couldn't help but return the friendly gesture.

"You remembered to grab everything?" Leo inquired of Shawn.

"You bet man. S'all in my bag." Shawn shrugged the backpack he was wearing off himself and set it down on the ground with care, unzipping it to reveal the contents it held. There were a good number of water balloons in the bag along with a few scattered flour bombs (little plastic baggies with flour in them), and by the looks of things, Leo could clearly see that none of the precious items had busted throughout the day.

Nodding his head in approval to his friend, Leo stood up and gave a mischievous grin to Shawn as he rubbed his paws together with anticipation once more.

"Well, lets get you up here and get ready."

It didn't take very long to get Shawn up on the roof. There was a bit of struggle to do it, mostly because neither Ronny nor Leo could qualify for what you could call "strong", and were attempting to haul Shawn straight up onto the roof by the arms, but with a few good tugs from Leo and Ronny and a bit of kicking at the wall from Shawn, it wasn't long before the black cat was on the roof with his two friends.

They took a quick moment to catch their breath before Shawn removed his backpack and set it gently down on the floor between himself, Leo, and Ronny. He unzipped it slowly and once more revealed to all of their eyes the sight of water balloons and the obscure amount of flour filled baggies. Leo smiled with happiness at the sight, giving Shawn a firm pat on the back as he sat down to relax a bit, once again pulling out his DS and resuming where he had left off in his game as Shawn and Ronny followed his lead by pulling out their own DS' and getting occupied with their own games.

All in all it was fairly uneventful for the three friends on the roof. There was a tranquil silence that was only broken when one of them cursed over something that had happened to them in their games, usually because of an in-game death, but overall it was peacefully quiet, "calm before the storm" you could say if you were trying to be overly poetic about it.

As the afternoon wore on for Leo, Ronny, and Shawn, it soon came to their attention that the bell would be ringing in a few minutes, signaling the end of the day, and that they had to get ready.

Sitting up from where they sat, Ronny and Shawn went over to the edge of the roof while Leo grabbed the bag containing the devices of their vengeance and brought it over to the other two, crouching down with them low to the ground to avoid being seen until the moment they would execute the ambush.

Feeling the excitement rising in his chest, turned to say a few words to Ronny.

"So we just stand up and pelt him?"

"Pretty much." He replied without taking his eyes of the ground. "Not too complicated for you, right?" He added in a teasing tone, making Shawn chuckle.

Leo responded with the finger before returning his gaze to the ground to await Spencer's arrival. He checked his watch, reading the time to be 2:59, meaning that the bell should ringing juuuust aaaabouuuuuut…

**riiiiiiiiing**

There we are.

Hearing the bell go off sent an excited jolt up Leo's spine. In only a few seconds now Spencer would be coming though the doors beneath himself, Ronny, and Shawn, meaning that in a few minutes they would be hurling water balloons at him, soaking him as well as avenging Aeris for last night, and that in an hour he, Ronny, and Shawn would be over at Aeris' house telling her and Ashley about how bad they had gotten back at this ass and having a good laugh at his expense. That though alone got Leo rallied up and excited for the coming event, nearly jumping out of his fur when he heard the door creak open a few seconds later, Shawn just barely able to hold in what would have been a very loud laugh at his friend's reaction.

They didn't dare peek over the edge to see who it was that had come out the door, none of them wanting to risk being spotted by a teacher, especially now that they were so close. They remained uncomfortably still, bodies pressed firmly against the small wall in front of them with their balloons close to bursting in their paws from how hard they were gripping them. They weren't nervous, though they had good reasons to be, just anxious. They wanted to get the waiting over with and just nail this Spencer dick with all the balloons they had and laugh in his face for it. Thinking about it made the waiting all the more worse for the three, for there bones were beginning to creak from trying to stay still for so long, but thankfully for our boys on the roof relief came in the form of a hearty chuckle from below, followed by a deep voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about Jimmy, but fucking Iginla can't shoot worth shit. Crosby all the way man."

The reply was delivered with an equally deep, but more immature sounding voice that Leo guessed must have belonged to "Jimmy". "Fuck your pretty boy Crosby Tony. All he does is bitch and complain. Iginla would mow him down in a second."

There was a resounding laugh from what sounded like a small group of muscled young men, an estimate that proved to be correct when Leo decided that it was safe to check and see who these guys were without the threat of a teacher. Peeking his eyes ever so slightly over the edge of the wall, Leo saw four tall and muscular boys, all wearing hockey-style jerseys and blue jeans. There was one that had white fur, sporting a Vancouver Canucks jersey with the number 14 on the back, one with dark brown fur and a Calgary Flames jersey with 86 on the back, another with fur that was just as dark as the last cat, a Pittsburg Penguins jersey on his back with 18 printed across it, and finally a black furred cat with an Edmonton Oilers with the magic number 99 on it. He stood slightly taller than the others, and when Leo got a good look at him, he couldn't help but feel small in contrast with this guy.

He instantly knew that this was Spencer.

He didn't need any confirmation; his gut told him that this was the person that had stood Aeris up last night, the person that made her cry, and the person that had nearly made him miss his 10:30 curfew last night. That last point made Leo feel a little selfish, but you get the point! Spencer was someone Leo didn't like very much right now!

Sitting back down in between Shawn and Ronny, Leo quietly told them that Spencer as well as a small group of what he presumed to be three of his friends were down below.

"You're sure there's four of them?" Ronny whispered.

Leo nodded his head yes. "You think we got enough balloons for all of them?"

"Oh yeah." Shawn replied with a grin, giving his backpack a light kick. "I made tons of em. We won't have to worry about running out."

"Awesome." Leo smiled in response and gave Shawn a bro-fist in thanks.

"Alright then, let's get down to business boys." Ronny said in an excited-sounding voice as he shifted positioning and crept up closer to the edge of the roof. Leo and Shawn followed with devilish smiles on their faces and balloons/flour bombs at the ready. Normally they would try to hide their excitement for the sake of looking cool, but they didn't really care right now, so each of them, Leo, Shawn, and Ronny, smiled so wide that it almost made their faces hurt.

Slinking up to the top of the wall, the three friends peered down at Spencer and his group. The were still going on about hockey, something which our boys found flat out boring, so they generally didn't pay much attention to what was being said below, winding up to chuck their balloons instead.

"I got the brown ones." Ronny said, taking aim at the two brown furred cats.

"White." Shawn replied. "Leo? You got Spencer?"

"Yep." Leo replied. "I'm gonna go for his face."

"Nice." Ronny said with an amused smile. "Here, you go first."

Leo nodded his head and slowly stood up. He didn't move slowly but it looked as though he did. He didn't stand up, just sat up a bit more so that his upper body was now clearly visible overtop of the wall in front of it. He cast a large shadow on the ground below, catching the attention of Spencer and his crew, making them turn to see what had cast the shadow, and they caught sight of Leo.

A few seconds of silence past before Leo spoke.

"Spencer?" He asked in an assertive voice.

The dark cat, for it was Spencer, got a questioning look on him when Leo spoke to him.

"Uh, yeah?"

"You had a date last night?"

"What does it matter to you, huh?"

"She's my best friend, you dick, that's what it matters to me."

With that, Leo twisted his arm behind his head and hurled the water balloon he was holding as hard as he could at Spencer, hitting him, you guessed it, right in the face. He staggered back a bit from the impact, not expecting it for one second, and then a wild, pissed-off look came into his eyes. He looked at Leo with his fangs bared.

"You little fuc-"

It was at that moment that Shawn and Ronny pounced up beside Leo, their own balloons and bombs in hand, and started throwing them at Spencer and his friends like there was no tomorrow.

"Ahh! What the hell!"

"That's what you get!"

"HOLY FUCK, IS THAT COLD!"

"It's sticking to my fur!"

"That's right you assholes! Suck it!"

Leo, Ronny and Shawn exhausted their balloons/bombs on the group below, quickly grabbing more to throw and soak them with, throwing more and more of the ice-cold and flour-filled bags, soaking those below and making their fur white and pasty, before they threw the last of their goodies, ironically it being the largest of the balloons getting thrown by Leo at Spencer's face once again.

While their enemies scrambled around aimlessly on the ground, trying to wipe the now sticky flour from their eyes, Leo Shawn and Ronny jumped up and away from the edge of the roof, grabbed Shawn's backpack, and ran off towards the other end of the roof, laughing like idiots at the misery of those on the ground.

So far, the plan was rolling along smoothly.

If only it would continue that way…

_**To Be Continued…**_

**A/N: holy fuck that was painful.**

**Sorry for being behind guys, I got wrapped up in a bunch of different things, and it just kept getting worse throughout the month.**

**I'm actually quite negative about this chapter, especially the ending, but I just said "fuck it" and got it done. I was tired of always erasing what I had, so this is what I got.**

**Anywho, I'll try and get chapter 5 up as soon as possible. It might be a while, but I'll do my best.**

**Now for something else: as I'm sure you've noticed, I've now got a second story in the works :) It's a collaboration with my friend MadManMatt64 (if you haven't checked out his stuff yet get on it!), s updates for that will probably come much sooner than HDYK.**

**So! Review if you please! I love hearing what you guys think! ^_^**


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